45. Felt illiterate in Saudi airport

I am a well-educated
management professional who has traveled abroad. I am an Indian but presently
live in Bengaluru though I am a Canadian citizen. Hence, I have a slight
Canadian Kannada accent.

Many years
ago, I had started from Mumbai and was taking a connecting flight from Jeddah
in Saudi Arabia to Sudan in Africa. The Air India manager took me to the Saudi Arabia
counter and asked the manager in English to take care of me. The manager took
my passport and ticket and went inside to get me a boarding pass. I waited for
5 minutes, without my passport which was my identification. I did not even note
his name or identification details. If he had not returned my passport, I would
have been stuck in the airport, in a city where I did not know anyone or the
language.

At that
moment, I knew what it felt like, to be illiterate. Luckily, he returned with
my passport and I proceeded on my journey but I never forgot that feeling to
this day.

I went to the lounge
upstairs in the waiting area to board the flight. All sign boards were in
Arabic, and all announcements were also in Arabic. I could not understand
anything. I looked around and luckily found a Sardarji in the crowd. He was going
to Khatoon, knew Arabic and agreed to help me out.

If there had
been a disaster of any kind in the airport, I would have been in a big problem.